Some patients can not swallow or have difficulty swallowing standard oral nutriments and medications. For example, many geriatrics have difficulty swallowing tablets. Furthermore, patients who must ingest nutrients through oral feeding tubes can not swallow individual medication dosages formed as pills and tablets. An historical solution for these persons has been the use of a traditional mortar and pestle to manually crush the pill or tablet into a fine powder which is then stored in a medicine cup until it is administered to the patient.
The mortar and pestle, however, has certain problems inherent with its use. First, the mortar and pestle must be thoroughly cleaned after each use to prevent the matter with which it is next used from becoming contaminated with the residue from the last substance with which it was used. Secondly, crushed powder adhering to the mortar or the pestle can reduce the ultimate dosage transferred to the patient resulting in sub-standard treatment. Third, the mortar and pestle is operated manually by each care provider which causes inconsistent results in the particle size of the crushed tablets and pills and can result in a portion of the dose to be lost when incorrect pressure is applied at an angle which permits some of the material to exit the mortar.
Attempts by the prior art to overcome these problems include both manual and motor driven devices which were specifically designed to cut, crack or pulverize small objects including food, nuts and medicinal tablets. Some such devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,940,327 (Rosenthal); 2,656,866 (Rumsey); 4,121,775 (Rosenberg et al); 4,209,136 (Linden et al); and 4,366,930 (Trombetti Jr) which include both manual and motor driven means for crushing tablets. However, none of the prior art devices provide either the convenience or the integrity required to accommodate the needs of the home bound geriatric or of those required to depend on enteral feeding systems for sustenance. It is toward the realization of these later goals that the present invention is directed.